The Domino Effect
June 6, 2022
Sometimes we might need to give ourselves a subliminal push for things to fall into place.
People might think an author has full control over the story they’re writing, but anyone who’s experienced writer’s block knows better. The past few months I’ve been writing parts of Harry’s Book 3 in fits and starts, schedule permitting, but it’s been difficult to get ideas and plot lines connected. I’d end up writing a page here and there, sometimes a chapter or two, but the story wasn’t hanging together. I was frustrated and started thinking the book had irretrievably fallen apart. I didn’t want to give up on it, but I felt I didn’t have a coherent direction to take.
There are times when I have to walk away from a problem for a while and shove it to the back of my mind. That’s not to say it goes away, of course; it simmers in the background instead of actively driving me crazy. When I put a problem on simmer, my view of it often becomes more removed, less emotional. I’m able to see it from different angles, to get myself out of the weeds. Many times a solution will pop up. I put Book 3 on simmer a few days ago and went about my business. (I actually did some cleaning, if you can believe it.)
In this case I was lucky. The solution that popped up was eight words that dropped into place at the end of a chapter. The placement of those eight words turned on “stream of consciousness” thinking that led to understanding how to fix the problem I had been struggling with for weeks. Each separate piece of what I had written fell into place, one after the other, like dominoes. It was perfect, and Harry’s story is back on track. 🙂
